Mariano Sánchez

Leng Leng Thang

Matthew Kaplan

Jaco Hoffman

In Intergenerational Contact Zones, Kaplan, Thang, Sánchez, and Hoffman introduce novel ways of thinking, planning, and designing intergenerationally enriched environments. Filled with vivid examples of how ICZs breathe new life into communities and social practices, this important volume focuses on practical descriptions of ways in which practitioners and researchers could translate and infuse the notion of ICZ into their work. The ICZ concept embraces generation and regeneration of community life, parks and recreational locations, educational environments, residential settings and family life, and national and international contexts for social development. With its focus on creating effective and meaningful intergenerational settings, it offers a rich how-to toolkit to help professionals and user groups as they begin to consider ways to develop, activate, and nurture intergenerational spaces. Intergenerational Contact Zones will be essential reading for academics and researchers interested in human development, aging, and society, as well as practitioners, educators, and policy makers interested in intergenerational gathering places from an international perspective.

Place-based Strategies for Promoting Social Inclusion and Belonging

Intergenerational Contact Zones

A dilemma long faced by western societies—how to bring the generations together—is also of growing concern in the east. In Japan, where, until recently, the extended family often lived under the same roof, social programs designed to facilitate interaction between old and young have proliferated. Leng Leng Thang offers an in-depth view of one of those programs, an unusual social welfare institution called Kotoen. Kotoen is a pioneering facility for multigenerational living, providing both daycare for preschoolers and a home for elderly residents. With its twin mottoes of fureai (being in touch) and daikazoku (large extended family), it has been the subject of widespread media attention and has served as a model for other institutions. Yet Kotoen has never before been studied seriously. Under its director's inspiring leadership, Kotoen looks unusually promising, but Thang is wary of simplistic conclusions. Her interviews, research, and work as a volunteer at Kotoen reveal the complaints common among some elderly residents toward their surroundings in old age institutions as well as the painful persistence of the traditional family ideal. Yet far from calling the experiment a failure, Thang challenges accepted wisdom and so-called common sense to reveal the advantages and limitations of the relationships fostered between Kotoen's "grandchildren" and "grandparents." The lessons learned from Kotoen illuminate the urgency of re-engaging the generations in an aging society and provide direction for improving the quality of life for all.

Leng Leng Thang

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